SOCIO-AFFECTIVE SKILLS FROM THE TUTORS' VIEWPOINT AND THEIR CHALLENGES Maria das Graças Freitas Santos

Abstract

This study estimates the socio-affective competence of distance tutors and analyzes how it can prevent students from becoming demotivated during the course. To this end, an online questionnaire was administered to 58 students containing questions that address the relationship between tutors and students in the virtual environment. A Likert scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) was used to verify the average level of agreement of students regarding the tutoring action in the following items: ability to live with differences, proximity and identity between the parties involved, assiduity in non-face-to-face communication, feeling of belonging, cordiality and motivation on the part of the tutor. In addition, students were asked which attitudes most contribute to their demotivation and which attributes they consider important for successful learning. The responses were analyzed and converted into graphs. In the students' perception, the tutoring action in relation to the analyzed items was good, since the average for all questions ranged from 4.13 to 4.75 (I agree). With the exception of "proximity and identity between the parties involved", since the average for the question about the existence of informal contact between participants and tutors was 3.52 (I neither agree nor disagree). Most students (87.5%) did not feel unmotivated and 12.5% ​​of those who did felt unmotivated considered the delay in answering questions as the main factor for demotivation. Regarding the attributes that students consider important for successful learning, the following stood out: recognizing the student's effort, creating a welcoming atmosphere in the VLE and perceiving the student's difficulties. Thus, it was found that socio-affective competence favors the construction of a harmonious virtual environment, where the student feels involved in the educational system, creating bonds that assist in the process of knowledge construction in partnership with the tutor and colleagues, even when physically distant.